On-going
series: Crisis in the Caucasus - 2009
The Russian / Georgian Conflict and Its Impact on AzerbaijanWindow on Eurasia: Original
Blog Article

Vienna, January 22 - Because law enforcement agencies in
Russia increasingly have not been able to guarantee the security
of journalists there, Aleksandr Lebedev, the co-owner of "Novaya
gazeta" has asked the FSB to allow his journalists to carry
weapons to protect themselves as they go about their entirely
legitimate business.

Lebedev's request came only
two days after someone shot down in cold blood on the streets
of Moscow "Novaya gazeta" journalist Anatasiya Baburova
together with attorney Stanislav Markelov and in the same week
that Lebedev attracted attention for his purchase of the London
"Evening Standard" http://www.sobkorr.ru/news/4978489B81DAC.html

And while at one level, this
request seems an entirely reasonable response to the rising tide
of violence in the Russian Federation, at another, it is an extremely
disturbing sign of the decay of any semblance of public order
there and the dangers involved of ever more groups having access
to lethal weapons.

Today, in memory of the latest
victims, a demonstration - which has been sanctioned by the authorities
- is scheduled to take place in Moscow's Pushkin Square. And
at the same time, some of Russia's leading human rights activists
have released a statement denouncing the killings and what they
mean.http://www.annews.ru/news/detail.php?ID=176048

The activists said that the
murder of the two was "a provocation" either by "death
squadrons" from the North Caucasus or by "those forces
which want to justify the introduction of harsh new police measures."
But in either case, they added, "the chief responsibility
of the special services is to prevent political murders,"
rather than to persecute activists.

Among the signatories were Ludmila
Alekseyeva, Alla Gerber, Lev Ponomaryev, Ernst Cherny, Yevgeny
Ikhlov and Ella Polyakov, individuals who are being as courageous
as Markelov who represented the family of the young Chechen woman
murdered by Col. Budanov who has now been released, and Baburova
who covered many cases of human rights violations.

Lebedev's call for arming journalists
calls attention to two far larger problems: the inability or
unwillingness of the authorities to maintain order and the government's
own plan to allow druzhinniki to carry non-lethal weapons to
assist the government militia, a step that some fear opens the
door to these popular militias becoming "death squadrons."

An article posted on the http://Forum.msk.ru site today
highlights this danger. It cites the observation of Igor Sholokhov,
the head of the Kazan Human Rights Center, that "the creation
of public militias of this kind casts doubt on the effectiveness
of [Russia's] law enforcement organs http://forum.msk.ru/material/news/711362.html

"Apparently," he continues,
"the interior ministry intends to place part of the responsibility
for the rise in crime on the druzhinniki, that is simple citizens"
for "despite the external attributes, these 'popular law
enforcers' will not be representatives of the powers that be,
and it will be impossible to hold them accountable for their
actions."

On the one hand, that may allow
the authorities themselves to escape blame by suggesting that
others are responsible. But on the other, Sholokhov continues,
"the arming of the druzhinniki will give rise to a sense
of being beyond punishment and thus capable of anything"
and thus "it is not excluded that this will lead to the
formation of so-called 'death squadrons.'"

Such groups, he continues, will
focus on liquidating "both criminals and opposite figures."
Tragically, "history knows many examples when the activities
of such 'brigades' has led to simple banditism. Does the [Russian
state now] need such additional problems," the Kazan rights
activist asks.

In commenting on Sholokhov's
remarks, the editors of http://Forum.msk.ru
note that while in many countries, the ownership by the population
of guns and other weapons serves as a check on government power,
in Russia, the way in which this ownership is being promoted
will have just the opposite effect, allowing the state to expand
its powers without bearing direct responsibility.

And that "idiotism"
of Russian life, the editors say, suggests that as has been so
often the case, something that makes a positive contribution
to the development of political and social life in other countries
has become in Russia the source of what appear to be some of
the most negative trends that country has yet seen.